Blue Roses

Female singer-songwriters whose principal outlets are guitar and piano are far from a rare breed. As such, it can be something of a challenge to garner enthusiasm for newcomers to the genre. Happily, one encounter with Blue Roses – the stage name of the artist formerly known as Laura Groves - is more than enough to allay such concerns. Her debut single for XL/Salvia, 'Doubtful Comforts' - a heart-wrenchingly simple, piano-driven waltz to a failing love affair - wouldn’t sound out of place in a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film, its melancholy perfectly-pitched, deeply affecting and yet never smothering. Elsewhere, tempos shift and melodies swirl, while her engaging vocal - half world-weary, half little-girl-lost – hangs delicately and mesmerisingly overhead. On stage as much as on record, she is possessed of an almost otherworldly quality, of the sort that true benchmarks in the realm of female solo artists – Kate Bush, Bjork, Bat For Lashes - so perfectly inhabit. She also, crucially, consistently avoids the twee waters into which so many of her contemporaries drift. Her sound, ever-ambitious and carefully considered, makes a turn on fellow Yorkshire-dwellers Grammatics' debut album (as guest vocalist on both 'Inkjet Lakes' and 'Relentless Fours'), and is one of the most wonderful current collaborations we can name. Should she maintain this high standard she has so effectively set for herself, the release of her own forthcoming debut could just mark the emergence of one of the most exciting female solo artists we've seen and heard in a very long time. Kate Hewett

Blue Roses' self-tited debut is released on April 27th via XL/Salvia. Limited 7" 'Doubtful Comforts' is available now.

Icy Demons

The first remark to make about Chicago troupe Icy Demons is that they aren't, strictly speaking, a brand new act. However, latest - third - record Miami Ice is their maiden release on these shores via the evergreen Leaf label. And, quite simply, it's too good for us not to include in this column. Icy Demons is the project of Griffin Rodriguez (bass/vocals, known as Blue Hawaii) and Man Man's Chris Powell (Pow Pow, on drums), who release the band's records on their Obey Your Brain imprint and record them in Rodriguez's Shape Shoppe studio. The lineup for Miami Ice also features members of Tortoise (Jeff Parker, guitar), Prefuse 73 (Josh Abrams, upright bass) and Man Man's Russell Higbee, also on guitar. Tomeka Reid plays cello. Sound-wise, it's a record that flits between moods and styles at will, often several times within the same song: for its first three minutes, for instance, '1850' recalls the textured beauty of Field Music before dropping into a sombre, Kate Bush-esque solo passage. Then it rises again, like TV On The Radio tuning back in. Elsewhere, it's a case of spot the influences: African rhythms, jazz, soul and psychedelia all inform parts of this record, save for epic closer 'Crittin' Down To Baba's', which sees the band discarding all of them for a banging electro-funk shakedown, 80s style. Well, they are from Chicago. Like the rest of Miami Ice, it's a brilliant, genre-blending tour-de-force, and one that might just make you reassess the eclecticism of other so-called US innovators. Rob Webb

Miami Ice is released on April 27th via Leaf. The band tour over here in May, dates as follows:

Floating Points

When your brains are boiling in their boney cage you'd do worse than give ears to Floating Points, the soothing beat project of 22-year-old Londoner Sam Shepherd. Definitions are only gonna fit loose at the minute, the variety here just too much, but the sole constant seems to be that familiar, aerated, loping gambol honed by the likes of Flying Lotus and J. Dilla before him. While taking that beat as his starting point, though, Shepherd seems more attuned to a UK wavelength than the legacy of old Detroit, tracks like 'Vacuum' cloaked in urbane half-memories of A Guy Called Gerald, synth peels gliding elegantly between slurred bom-thwacks and Friday evening house dust, the whole thing underpinned by benign UKG bass swells. A 7" – the questing 'For You' b/w 'Radiality''s more ecstatic tones – has already arrived courtesy of the fledgling Eglo Records, while mixes have been arranged for BBC DJ pair Gilles Peterson and Mary Anne Hobbs. Live sets are accumulating, too – Shepherd can be caught at Brick Lane's Truman Brewery on March 28th, Manchester's KroBar on May 3rd and he'll be back in the Rainy City as part of the mouth-watering bill for this year's Future Sonic festival, joining the likes of Kode9, Zomby, Actress and Hudson Mohawke. Early days, but it's not hard to see Floating Points earning as much praise as that celebrated motley – Shepherd's beats exhibit a similar amount of play, but do so with a lax freshness that sets him apart from his peers; easy summer vibes that sidestep the queasy fidget many seem to see as inherent to notions of adventurous, rewarding dance music. Kev Kharas